Russell McVeagh continues to support its home-grown talent while building its expertise across a number of key practice areas, recently promoting five senior associates: Breanna Macara and Nicola Robbins Osborne (Corporate Advisory), James Tocher and Maddy Lister (Litigation), and Callum Dickson (Competition and Regulation).
Breanna, Nicola and Callum all began their careers at the firm, with Breanna and Nicola having advanced their careers at Russell McVeagh since joining, and Callum returning in 2023, bringing valuable experience gained from working in-house. James and Maddy both joined the firm in 2023 and further strengthen the team with their expertise in Litigation.
Corporate Advisory
Breanna advises on a wide range of commercial and corporate law matters, including on commercial contracting and outsourcing, corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, and general corporate advisory. Her speciality is advising on commercial projects involving Crown agencies partnering with private entities.
Joining the firm's Wellington office as a graduate in January 2018, Breanna has progressed her career at Russell McVeagh ever since, becoming a solicitor in August 2018 and a senior solicitor in December 2021.
Nicola is experienced in working with private and public sector clients on high-value projects, specialising in commercial contracting, procurement, and complex transactions. She also has expertise in the technology and infrastructure sectors.
She is a home-grown talent based in the Wellington office, having started her career at the firm in January 2018 and advancing to senior solicitor in December 2021.
Competition and Regulation
Based in the Auckland office, Callum is experienced across a broad range of competition law matters, including Commerce Act investigations, merger clearances for domestic and international transactions, market studies and market power issues. He also advises clients operating in highly regulated industries on sector-specific regulatory requirements, particularly within the electricity sector.
He returned to Russell McVeagh in early 2023, after three years working as an in-house lawyer for Xero, and at a boutique law firm specialising in technology law.
Litigation
James acts and advises on a wide variety of commercial and public law disputes, and has experience in class actions, complex litigation, judicial review, regulatory disputes and human rights. He has extensive advocacy experience, having appeared regularly before the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court, including in multiple civil trials.
Before joining Russell McVeagh's Wellington team in 2023, James was a junior barrister at Thorndon Chambers. He started his legal career as a judge's clerk at the High Court in Wellington.
Based in Auckland, Maddy specialises in employment law and health and safety. She has a broad range of experience, including advising on all types of disciplinary and performance issues, restructuring situations, status claims, collective bargaining, discrimination claims, employee privacy claims, and health and safety matters.
Maddy worked at a boutique employment firm in New Zealand for six years before joining Russell McVeagh as a senior solicitor in August 2023.
"It's a pleasure to welcome such talented senior lawyers to the firm and to see our homegrown talent thriving and growing with us. Attracting such quality people shows the strength of the supportive, flexible, and inclusive environment we've built – one that offers amazing career opportunities and the chance to work with some of New Zealand's leading organisations."
Russell McVeagh CEO Jo Avenell
Russell McVeagh also recently announced two new partners – Lauren Rapley and Jeremy Upson – which you can read about here, and the appointment of South Island-based partner Tony Sycamore to its team (read more on this here).